


Symbiosis

by Anonymous



Series: One [4]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 03:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14511561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: SPOILERS FOR NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER!!! It’s not like he can save anyone with it, but maybe making two people one people would be a good party trick.





	1. Everybody wants to be a Cat

‘Don’t worry about it! Cross that bridge when I get there!’

Strategies that had served Akira well thus far. Strategies that he may have to retire for the time being.

Such as when he charged ahead of his team in the factory when they knew that it was prone to falling apart. They had used the factory’s own controls to wreck the arms working the conveyor belt. Had already avoided being crushed by the parts falling and blocking their path. 

Until Akira lets himself get comfortable.

Akira slumps to the ground. There isn’t enough space for him to stand up. Prison is dark and cold save for a few cracks the light can shine through. At least it was just him trapped.

“Joker are you okay!?”

There’s a gap just big enough to fit his arm through. Akira sticks his arm through the gap and waves. 

“Guys look there’s Joker’s arm!”

Someone’s holding his hand and Akira would be downright embarrassed at how hot his face goes if he wasn’t on the verge of a claustrophobic break.

“Don’t worry Joker we’ve made it through worse, we’ll get you out of there.”

There’s a quiet few moments where Akira can hear the others chatting but they’re too far away for him to catch the specifics.

Suddenly there’s fire jetting through the crevasses of his prison and he’s screaming. There is _not_ enough room inside for the team to go wild like that.

“Guys chill!” He shouts, stamping out a corner of his coat that had been set alight.

“Akira what a wonderful idea! If I chill these maybe they’ll shatter right after being heated and-“

“And what if something falls down on Joker? _Fox_.” Ryuji cuts him off.

He hears some shoving, scraping, cursing. Akira’s foot catches in a space in the wall.

It’s a little smaller than an air duct. Akira pushes a little at the blocks that compose the little passage. They don’t budge.

Confident that there won’t be a sudden collapse that crushes his head like an egg, Akira slithers through.

Until his shoulders bring him to a halt. Squeeze as he might he just can’t get them past.

He pulls out and turns around. Just maybe.

His feet, shins, thighs-

Another stop.

Curse his shoulders and curse his big dumb butt.

How much time passes he doesn’t know. One regular minute probably counts for fifty trapped minutes. He’s been in here long enough that even he’s bothered by his own ideas. 

But maybe that means they’re wild enough to work.

“Hey Mona come here.” Akira calls through the opening.

“Have you come up with something?” By his voice alone Akira can feel Morgana perking up.

“Sure,” Akira says under his breath. He takes his glove off and sticks his hand through the opening. “Hold your hand out.”

There’s a bit of a fumble as Morgana bats his hand but ultimately avoids his grip. They get it on their second try. 

“Mona is this okay with you?” Akira whispers through the gap, gently squeezing Morgana’s hand. His heart speeds up thinking about their recent spat.

“Yeah of course.” Morgana shoots back. “We’re partners.”

“Thanks Mona,” Akira smiles. He closes his eyes and focuses.

First comes the eye stinging light, then the screaming.

“Joker you can’t be serious!”

“Joker that’s reckless!”

_No one makes history by being serious or being not reckless_ Akira thinks begrudgingly, then the world goes black.

When they open their eyes they’re a lot smaller yet larger and broader at the same time. Squishier too, which should serve their purpose for today well.

They do a few stretches, try to get some handle on this body. Yet no matter how they stretch themself there’s no compression or tug or anything. They can probably bend themself way more than they have been but something in their mind says they really shouldn’t do that. Not now at least. 

Hitting the ground they level their body with the small passage and it still looks like a long shot. They hunch their shoulders forward and back, concluding that their shoulders are squishier rolling back.

It’s go time.

“Fox can you freeze the surfaces on this passage down here?”

“Huh?” 

“Oh thank god they can still talk.”

On the other side there’s some scramble as the team rushes to get Yusuke on the other side of the passage. 

“Confining the ice to this area will be difficult.”

They click their tongue at the hesitation in his voice, that just won’t do.

“You’re a smart kid Fox. Prudent. That’s good in a phantom thief, but sometimes you gotta go for it. You’ll be great I promise.”

“If you insist. I advise you back away from the opening.”

They rush to flatten their back against the wall furthest from the opening. The second they hit the wall there’s sheet ice racing across the ground. It stops just short of their toes. 

The resulting chill frosts the floor and mists the air, they need to go _now_.

Hunching their shoulders they set about to slide through the gap. Their head goes in no problem and then the carnival truly starts. 

This is how it’s been all their life but it also hasn’t. Something decidedly inhuman has become of their physical makeup. Without a sound their bones twist and squish in ways they never have. They swear their shoulders are squeezing to the width of their collarbones. All the while they’re freezing and wet in the pass and it’s awful.

Mercifully the passage is small and soon enough they surface on the other side. 

They’re cold, drenched, and grumpy. Still, they’re out.

A round of gasps and wide eyes greets them.

“Necronomicon did imply it was possible.” Futaba says matter of fact, she still looks just as shocked.

They shake themselves out, flicking their ears and getting stray drops off of their trim jacket. Thankfully no ice got in their boots.

“Wagahai is ready!” They grin and salute. “Now let’s get that treasure.”


	2. prezəns=prez(ə)nt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’d be a really good party trick but he’d probably terrify everyone he showed it to and someone would call the police and get him sent back to jail and it’d suck.

Life used to be so simple.

In the end they decided there was nothing they could do. ‘Impossible’ didn’t exist in the Phantom Thief lexicon, but there was a first for everything.

“If we could just make Joker super small or strong or something.”

The smallest Joker could go… There was Futaba, and then there was what happened in the Okumura palace.

Yusuke sighs from his place against the wall. “And risk more than one of us getting caught?”

“It might be better than Joker being taken in alone.” Makoto offers.

“There’s no way we could account for the physical change.” Yusuke shakes his head. “We don’t know how long they’ll hold him for. The longest fusion he can keep is around four hours I believe?”

“Three hours forty-seven minutes,” Futaba quips.

“If we were lucky enough to only have Joker held that long this conversation wouldn’t be necessary.” Yusuke mutters, “I also don’t see how Skull could help him in this situation.”

They had made a point to never rely on Akira’s fusion ability. It’s a playing card they have in their deck but certainly no trump card. Arguably they had been better off for it, but it was still frustrating that despite having all the pieces they had no edge on the conspiracy. 

And then with the addition of a loaded member on the team, they have to take certain things into consideration.

“What in the- so we have to send one person in to fight or die?” Ryuji says incredulously. 

The shadow at the coliseum counter nods. “Yup them’s the rules. Or you can try your luck at the dice downstairs,” he says with a knowing glint in his eye. “Heard they got the tables back in order.”

“Tch. Bastard.” Ryuji grumbles and Ann elbows him. The shadow merely laughs.

“Wait we should send Akira!” Ryuji shouts. “‘Cause he can-”

“Summon different personas!” Ann says and elbows him harder, in the same spot as before.

“What? That’s-”

“ _Ryuji!_ ” Ann hisses. 

“While I hate the idea of sending Joker in there alone I do agree he is uniquely qualified for this.” Akechi says, ignoring their bickering. 

The moment Akechi speaks Ryuji’s eyes go wide, he immediately stops badgering Ann.

Thus they add another item to the pile of giant secrets they’re keeping from Goro Akechi.

They go through autumn never resting easy. Goro Akechi blackmailed his way onto the team. Goro Akechi states that they shouldn’t send Prosecutor Niijima a calling card until the eighteenth and makes a compelling case for it, but they all know the truth. 

The fated day comes and goes.

Whether he’s horrendously unlucky for being in such a situation in the first place, or lucky for making it out alive he’s not sure. Either way Akira physically emerges the hole like a bat out of hell, and they have a new target.

“Are you sure?” Haru looks at him, brows scrunched. “Shouldn’t you take a few days off first? It couldn’t hurt.”

His heart begins to simmer. _You experienced the passing of immediate family but you didn’t take a break._

He wants to beat himself up the moment the thought crosses him.

Ann, Ryuji, and Morgana step up. 

“Just a day or two man. We’ll scout the place first and keep you in the loop for sure.”

At some point Akira’s hand curled into a fist clenched so tight it’s trembling. He forces himself to take a breath, lets it out shaky. 

“ ‘m resting tons with no school.” His voice comes out monotonous, robotic. “I…”

This might be the finishing blow. He can’t, he cannot.

He doesn’t.

“I want to be there for the scout.”

Ann crosses her arms. “We’re going there, gathering info, and getting out.” She jabs a finger at him. “We’re gonna stick together and we’re not gonna go out of our way to steal shit or beat people up.”

Akira nods.

Seeing Shido’s palace seems to light a fire under everyone’s ass. To Akira’s relief the team’s questions about injury and trauma fall to the wayside. Even better it gives him something to focus on.

Then comes the reunion with Akechi.

Akira knew their progress through the ship had been too smooth. Not that pissing off and fighting every cognition they needed a letter from could be considered flawless execution, but that couldn’t be helped.

Akechi isn’t a cognition they can simply dispose of and collect a letter from. 

“You like Joker don’t you,” Morgana says sadly. “Please don’t do this.

Akechi’s spitting mad, near frothing at the mouth and consumed. Hell if they hadn’t all been there before.

However then Akechi is just that, a cognition.

“Look at you, fighting so hard before we’re voided.”

It’s a familiar voice with a sickeningly wrong twist.

“Voided?” Akechi says.

“Do you hear yourself?” The cognitive double cackles loudly. “Stick it through the election and _then_ make Masayoshi Shido’s life hell? You really think you’ll be around until then.”

It clicks for all of them. Akira can see it clicking for Akechi a second before the rest. Akechi raises his pistol and before he knows it, Akira’s legs _go_.

“No.” Akira whispers hysterically. “No nonono…!”

Time slows to a crawl and for a moment Akira meets his reddish brown eyes and he can see into Akechi’s soul and Akechi, his. Akechi shakes his head.

Akira’s arm shoots out. Be it a trick of the light he thinks he can see the beginnings of Akechi raising his non-pistol hand. 

Time resumes, going faster and faster like the dread permeating his stomach and heart until it’s all too fast. 

Akechi raises his pistol hand.

“NO!” 

It’s sick how it all just ends in a blink. Akechi kills the switch and Akira reaches out with all his strength he’s almost there he’s so close he swears their fingers brush. 

Then the metal partition comes crashing down, smashing Akira’s hand out of the way in the process. 

The second passes and all Akira is the metal clang echoing around the room and the sting in his hand that feels like every rejection he’s ever experienced in his life hitting him all at once and compounded.

“There’s no signal on the other side.” Futaba says, long after the echo fades.

***

Akira wakes up in the morning feeling like lead. He doesn’t remember coming home. In fact he’s not sure if he slept and dreamt those last crucial moments on replay or if he was laying in bed reliving them while awake.

Akechi pulling the trigger.

Something brushing his fingers and the partition slamming his hand out of the way. Those last two may be the same he isn’t sure.

Given what had happened in the ship the day before it makes sense. Probably one of their most stressful metaverse trips thus far. 

It’s bitter cold outside of the duvet, perhaps the heater was running low on kerosene. Outside the window is grey.

Kicking off the blanket he prepares to get ready for the day. Brush his teeth, comb his unruly hair. He doesn’t have school to look presentable for but Morgana will yell at him either way.

Akira squints at the mirror.

With all the fervour around Shido’s palace and keeping the Thieves’ necks off the chopping block he must have let his hair get out of hand.

Be it the not really present humidity or length his hair just isn’t alive and atangle like usual.

Usually it’s even fluffier and wilder in the mornings from hitting the hay after a bath.

Akira frowns.

It’s probably nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS


End file.
